1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a finishing apparatus which is suitable particularly for a fastener chain to which coil-shaped continuous synthetic resin elements are attached ,by sewing, along a side edge of a fastener tape. More particularly, it relates to a finishing apparatus for fixing stoppers to the fastener chain in its length-wise direction at predetermined intervals and simultaneously removing a group of the elements with a predetermined length so as to form spaces at positions adjacent to the stopper attached positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a finishing apparatus for succesively attaching stoppers to a fastener chain transferred intermittently and for simultaneously forming spaces on the fastener chain successively, has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-51819 or Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-18482 and reduced to practice. However, any of such finishing apparatuses is for finishing a fastener chain where metallic elements are attached to a fastener tape thereof, but is not for finishing a fastener chain where coil-shaped continuous fastener elements are attached to a fastener tape thereof by sewing.
It is necessary to have positions of the fastener chain where the stoppers are attached close to positions where the spaces are formed as close as possible. Therefore, the above-mentioned finishing apparatus includes a stopper-attaching unit and a space-forming unit arranged so as to be close to each other as much as possible.
Because an object to be processed is a fastener chain in which metallic elements have been planted, the stopper-attaching unit and the space-forming unit can be thus arranged so as to be close to each other so that the stopper attaching position and the space forming position in the fastener chain can be close to each other. However, in the case where a fastener chain where synthetic resin coupling elements formed into a continuous coil shape are sewn on a fastener tape thereof is processed, the above-mentioned finishing apparatus cannot be put into practical use only by changing its design.
Namely, in the fastener chain having such kind of metallic coupling elements, the respective coupling elements are planted by caulking their leg portions onto the side edge of the fastener tape, and are made of metal that does not have viscosity and flexibility. As a result, the coupling elements can be removed from the fastener tape easily only by cutting one of the leg portions of each element. Naturally, that the coupling elements are cut to be removed from the fastener tape easily renders an element-cutting-removal mechanism so simple as disclosed in the above publications. For example, a basic element-cutting-removal mechanism for metallic elements represented by the mechanisms disclosed in the above publications is provided with a punch and a die for forming spaces that are respectively arranged above and below the fastener chain, which requires no other special operating members. Further, a transfer surface of the chain in the attached position of the die can be used as a die, so that only the punch may be operated up and down.
Meanwhile, as disclosed in the above publications, a stopper-attaching unit cuts a wire material transferred intermittently into a dimension of the stopper in a position above the stopper attaching position of the fastener chain and bends the wire material into U-shape, and presses the wire material from above astride of a row of the coupling elements of the fastener chain, and allows the wire material to pierce through a fastener tape and simultaneously bends its leg portions inwardly on lower surfaces of the fastener tapes so as to fix the wire material to the fastener chain. Such. operations are performed by synchronously cooperating up-and-down motion of a cutting punch, arranged above a fixed die formed on a base composing a fastener-chain-transfer path in the stopper-attaching unit, with forward-and-backward motion of a bender along the chain-transfer direction.
Therefore, the space-forming unit, which forms a space by removing the metallic coupling elements from the fastener chain in a predetermined length thereof, and the stopper-attaching unit , which attaches the stopper to a position close to the space, are composed of a small number of operating members which perform a simple operation above the base composing the transfer surface of the fastener chain. Thus, it is not specially difficult to arrange both the units so close to each other.
However, in the fastener chain with the coil-shaped coupling elements made of synthetic resin attached to the fastener tapes thereof by sewing thread, if only coupling head portions of the elements are simply cut, the leg portions are still held by the sewing thread. Such removal of coupling elements are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-48521. This Publication discloses a space-forming unit including: a pair of upper fixed grippers spaced from each other in a lateral direction; a pair of lower movable grippers spaced from each other in the lateral direction, which are movable up and down with respect to the. upper grippers and nip opposite fastener tapes of a fastener chain with the fastener elements facing upward, in cooperation with the upper fixed grippers when the lower grippers are lifted up; a fixed die arranged between the lower movable grippers and having a cutting edge portion at its upper portion thereof; a knockout for passing through the fixed die and moving up and down between the lower grippers and between the upper grippers; and a punch arranged above the knockout so as to face the knockout for pushing down the coupling head portions of the fastener elements at the time of being processed.
The space-forming unit having the above structure cuts and removes the coil-shaped continuous coupling elements from the fastener chain in such a manner as follows. After the opposite fastener tapes of the fastener chain are nipped by the upper grippers and lower grippers in a state where the coupling elements are coupled with each other and face upward, the coupling-head-portion-sides of the fastener elements are pushed down by the punch so as to be exposed between the fastener tapes to the cutting edge portion of the fixing die. When the punch is further lowered, the lower portions of the exposed coupling head portions of the opposite coupling elements are cut by the cutting edge portion of the fixed die which is in a stand-by position below the coupling head portions, and the cut fastener elements are pushed up as being nipped by the punch and the knockout, and residual portions of the cut elements are drawn out of loops of the sewing thread so as to be removed from the fastener tape.
In order to cut and remove the parts of such coil-shaped fastener elements made of synthetic resin from the fastener chain to which the fastener elements are attached by the sewing thread, it is necessary to arrange a plurality of operating members at positions above and below the transferring surface of the fastener chain, and to synchronously actuate these operating members so as to be co-operated with each other. For this reason, a driving section for actuating the operating members must be provided in or below the base. Further, there is a limit in compactly designing a lot of members and apparatuses arranged in such a manner, thus it is extremely difficult to provide all the members including supporting sections for the respective members within a dimensional limit of the operating members. Particularly since the lower grippers, in side of which the knockout moves up and down, needs to have a function for guiding the knockout inside thereof, the lower grippers are necessarily designed so as to surround a circumference of the knockout. As a result, the lower grippers are extended to an outer side a space-forming area of the slide fastener chain in the longitudinal direction thereof, which is determined by the dimension of the knockout. Thus, a distance between the space and the stopper becomes longer by this extended length, and thus the stopper-attaching unit cannot be installed so as to be close to the space-forming area.
The present invention has been made in order to solve conventional problems, and its particular object is to provide a finishing apparatus where a space-forming unit and a stopper-attaching unit are arranged so that spaces can be formed in a fastener chain to which coil-shaped continuous coupling elements are attached and simultaneously stoppers can be attached to the fastener chain at positions close to the spaces.
The object can be achieved by a fastener-chain-finishing apparatus, comprising: a chain-supply means for intermittently supplying a continuous fastener chain in which a pair of rows of coupling elements in a coil shape are attached along inner side edges of a pair of opposite fastener tapes by sewing; a stopper-attaching unit which is arranged on a transfer path of the fastener chain and fixes stoppers to the supplied fastener chain at a predetermined interval; and a space-forming unit which is arranged adjacent to the stopper-attaching unit at the transfer path of the fastener chain and removes the coupling elements of a predetermined length from the fastener chain, wherein the stopper-attaching unit includes a forming die arranged on a base and composing one part of the fastener-chain-transfer path, a bender for advancing and retreating along the fastener chain with respect to a supporting portion of a wire material for forming stoppers, and cutting punches for cutting the wire material supplied onto the bender into a predetermined length and a shape, a forming punch arranged so as to face the forming die for moving up and down with respect to the forming die so that a cut wire material piece can be formed into a stopper shape and for simultaneously installing the stopper to the fastener chain, the space-forming unit includes a pair of fixed grippers fixed to a base, spaced from each other in a lateral direction of the fastener-chain-transfer path and composing a part of the fastener-chain-transfer path, a pair of movable grippers spaced from each other in the lateral direction and being movable up and down with respect to the fastener-chain-transfer path in cooperation with each other, a pair of opposite fixed fixed cutters arranged between the pair of opposite fixed grippers and having cutting edge portions. at their upper portions, a knockout for passing through the opposite fixed cutters and moving up and down between the fixed grippers and between the movable grippers, and a punch arranged so as to face the knockout and being movable up and down independently between the opposite movable grippers so as to push down coupling head portions of the coupling elements at the time of processing, and wherein all the lengths of respective members, namely, the fixed grippers, the movable grippers, the fixed cutters, the knockout and the punch in a direction of the fastener-chain-transfer path are set to be substantially equal to a length dimension of a space-forming area of the fastener chain, and end surfaces of those members at least on one side thereof share common vertical surfaces with one-side end surfaces of the stopper-attaching unit adjacent to the members in the direction of the chain-transfer path.
Namely, according to the fastener-chain-finishing apparatus of the present invention, particularly in the space-forming unit, only the knockout among the plural members arranged below the chain-transfer path is movable up and down but all the other members are fixed in their positions so as not to move. As a result, excessive units for driving the members are not required, and thus the units below the chain-transfer path can be compact. Meanwhile, since the movable grippers and punch main body, which have lengths substantially equal to the space-forming length of the fastener chain, have end surfaces at least one side in the chain-transfer direction that are exposed outside, the end surfaces can come to contact with the end surface of the stopper-attaching unit arranged adjacent to them. Therefore, different from the conventional mechanism for cutting and removing metallic coupling elements in a space-forming area of the fastener chain, a stopper and a space can be simultaneously and accurately formed in predetermined positions in the fastener chain to which coil-shaped coupling elements are attached by sewing thread, in spite that it needs a complicated structure and a lot of operating members.
In addition, it is preferable that the opposite movable grippers and the punch of the space-forming unit respectively have slide lever sections for moving up and down along inner wall surfaces of a cylindrical guide member having an end surface at a side of the vertical surfaces, and gripper main bodies and a punch main body that are respectively joined perpendicularly to lower ends of the lever sections and are extended to end surfaces of the vertical surface side. Further preferably, the cutting punches of the stopper-attaching unit are provided to be slidable against the end surface of the cylindrical guide member at the vertical surface side. Furthermore, it is preferable that the slide lever sections of the movable grippers have angular cylindrical shapes where their upper ends are opened, and lower ends of springs are fixed in hollows of the slide lever sections, and upper ends of the springs are fixed to a retainer.
Further preferably, the cylindrical guide member of the space-forming unit and the cutting punches of the stopper-attaching unit are actuated by one fluid pressure cylinder. In this case, the stopper-attaching unit and the space-forming unit can be easily driven synchronously, and the units can be further compact.